Ottawa Senators get their chances, but Luongo and the Florida Panthers get the win

Florida Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo keeps his eyes on the puck as his teammates converge on the Ottawa Senators' Dion Phanuef at the Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016.FRED CHARTRAND / THE CANADIAN PRESS

But they were plagued by a problem that may seal their playoff fate at the end of the season: an inability to score.

Hockey is a simple game, and try as they did, the Senators had no shortage of chances but just couldn’t beat Florida Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo when it counted most as he made 39 stops to hand Ottawa a 4-1 defeat in front of 14,132 Saturday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.

Though the job didn’t get any easier playing without injured forwards Bobby Ryan and Mike Hoffman, the Senators have now only scored 11 goals in their past nine games, and while Jean-Gabriel Pageau was able to ruin Luongo’s bid for a shutout it wasn’t nearly enough.

Goaltender Craig Anderson, the club’s best player this season, couldn’t save Ottawa, either, as his lifetime record against his former Florida teammates fell to 13-7-2. Jaromir Jagr had a three-point effort while Jussi Jokinen, Derek MacKenzie and Jonathan Marchessault also chipped in.

The most noticeable move by the Senators in this 60 minutes was Ottawa players leaving the front of the Florida net shaking their heads, wondering what it was going to take. Mark Stone, Kyle Turris, Ryan Dzingel and Derick Brassard all had chances but were stoned by Luongo.

The Senators were forced to accept this as a moral victory.

“We had 40 shots, 83 shots attempted … That’s outstanding,” said coach Guy Boucher, sounding flabbergasted. “You look at that game, we deserved the game, it’s a funny game but it goes the other way.

“The guys were doing everything to score. I’ve asked them to battle around the net, be there, and they did. If you would have given me that (gamesheet) before the game, I definitely would have taken it and I would have been sure we would win that game. That’s one of those where we need the same effort the next game and keep pushing the same way.”

The Florida Panthers’ Seth Griffith attempts to poke check the Ottawa Senators’ Curtis Lazar, who is back with the Senators after beginning the season in Binghamton.FRED CHARTRAND /
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Pageau got the Senators on the board at 4:45 of the third with a goal Luongo would probably like to have back.

“It’s not the result we wanted but we did good things,” said Pageau, who beat Luongo with a shot off his shoulder. “A couple of bounces could have gone our way. Now, we have to keep working on getting better.”

Luongo made a lot of huge stops as the Senators pressed to try to get on the board and back into the game when they were trailing 2-0. Luongo made a big save on Dzingel as he went in alone on a breakaway while Pageau was robbed with an open net on a power play in the second.

The Panthers pulled out to the two-goal lead with eight minutes left in the first despite barely having any chances. Jokinen fired it home from the slot, beating Anderson high on the glove side. It was only the third shot he’d faced in the period as the Senators pushed the pace.

The Florida Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov skates past the Ottawa Senators’ Mark Stone during the first period.FRED CHARTRAND /
THE CANADIAN PRESS

A trend the Senators have yet to fix is giving up the first goal, and it happened for the 13th time in 18 games this season.

People hadn’t even had a chance to settle into their seats and already the Panthers had pulled to a 1-0 lead 25 seconds into the first. Jagr’s second of the season, which came on a bounce off Brassard’s stick, ended a 14-game drought.

“The puck was going four feet wide to my blocker side and it hit Brass’ stick just trying to get back. It’s just one of those nights where it was bad luck,” said Anderson, who faced 23 shots. “The fourth one (by MacKenzie) is completely my fault.

“We were buzzing, getting momentum, and I’m not saying we were going to come back and win, but that definitely cost us momentum and took the wind out of our sails for a chance to get back in the game. I’m not happy with the way I played.”

The Senators face the Montreal Canadiens Tuesday at the Bell Centre.

“We did a lot of good things we can build off of,” said winger Chris Neil. “We’ve got to take the positives out of it, and if you play like that you’re going to win your share of games.”

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